30-40s Farmhouse: I made a replica of my great great grandparents' farmhouse back in the late 1970s with the help of family members for a family reunion. The house was given to the family at the reunion but reading Grace's comments I thought I'd add mine in case somebody is making a Southern TN farmhouse. This house was not made of brick but wood and stone by hand by my family. The original home has been gone for many years - but I worked from family photos and many family memories of the house. This house had 3 bedrooms and no bath (It had an outhouse where you checked for snakes first) The kitchen, the gathering room and one bedroom had electricity added in 1959. A big part of the family's memories from the 30s/40s/50s/60s. The house had a wrap around screen porch in the front and rear. A big stone fireplace was the center of the house in the gathering room. The main bedroom was 3 steps down behind the kitchen, with the stone forming one wall of the room (bedroom door was next to the stairwell), and a big featherbed was underneath a small window that looked out towards the cotton fields. The upstairs had three small bedrooms with one large closet in the hallway. Each bedroom window overlooked the front yard. Many relatives stated the rooms were so small if you fell out of bed in the middle of the night you would hit the wall on the other side of the room. ha! The kitchen had hardwood floors and the icebox was the last thing you saw when you exited the back porch. A huge cook stove was on the other side of the kitchen with the table and chairs in the center of the room. The trees on the lot were massive oaks that shaded the house all day. The windows were always open in the summertime (no ac) and in the winter the heat from the fireplace and the stove kept the house warm. Hurricane lamps were used in each room at night and the coverings on each bed had homemade quilts. The barn was 8 1/2 feet away from the main house which housed the cows, horses, ducks and where the dogs lived. A chicken coop was located 4 feet away from the barn on the south side and several feet away from the barn was the outhouse on the west.

Elizabeth Smith, DFW, TX

40s Farmhouse: More ideas for the 40s farmhouse, based on my grandparents' dairy farm: the big wood-burning stove often had big stoneware crocks of whole milk heating on it as my grandmother home-pasteurized for home use; also big stoneware bowls full of rising dough on the metal-topped table, covered with feed sack kitchen towels, and a glass churn for home-made butter (just like a 1:12 working model I've seen at Hobby Lobby). Wall decor: all the old Polish-American farmers I grew up around had religious pictures, usually a Madonna and a Sacred Heart they had brought from the old country, very colorful and pretty gory to a little kid, plus a cuckoo clock-like items that looked like a wall-hung Swiss chalet and had a pop-out man or woman figure -- the woman meant nice weather, the man, prepare for a storm - -- and a wall calendar, usually a freebie from the John Deere or Allis Chalmers dealership or the dairy coop.

Loretta Sniarowski

Farmhouse: The first time I saw my GP'S farm was in 1946, right after the war. They lived about 40 mi. N of Minot, ND and I remember it being HOT!!!! They were one of the more well to do farms in the area and actually had tree groves planted on 2 sides of the house so it was fairly well protected both in the winter and summer but because they were old and couldn't keep it clear, it became a breeding ground for mosquitoes which ate my little brother alive (I was smart enough to stay at my cousin's farm about 2 miles away (they didn't have trees but they didn't have mosquitoes either). Neither house had indoor plumbing of any kind orelectricity and they did their farming with horses (which was great fun for me because I was a horse nut even then). My mother had to do our wash by hand with a washboard and tub outside the house. A well with drinkable icy water just outside the kitchen supplied water for both my GPs and uncle who had to bring milk cans over to fill for his house (do you know how bad hard water tastes when it is warm? - yehckkkkk!). There was always a pail with a dipper next to the door. In the kitchen was a BIG black wood stove and a table where you prepared food and baking was done one day a week for the entire week (I can still smell the aroma of home baked rolls and bread) -they also did all the pies, etc. hence the need for a pie safe. Also in the kitchen was a table for eating - since the farm hands were fed by the family I can remember them coming in in their overalls to have lunch. Dinner was held in the dining room at a big Oak round table. Mostly the floors in my GP's house were hardwood but my uncle had linoleum throughout the house (easy to clean). They had old furniture mixed with odds & ends which contrasted greatly with the GP's who had what looked like Stickley to me and a carpet and nice lace curtains in the living room. The front porch was covered with a nice railing and porch swing and honeysuckle to shade it - by contrast my uncle had sort of a porch with no railing, in the full glare of the sun and no plants of any kind. It was a real contrast in farm life styles. One of my most pleasant memories was of spending hours with my cousin cutting out paper dolls and making clothes from pages in the Sears catalog. I returned 8 yrs later and they had gotten a tractor and electricity brought in the refrigerator (before that they used a root cellar in the basement to keep vegetables and pickles, etc.) They had found oil in ND and it brought in a little prosperity for everyone (at least for a little while).

Ana

70s: http://www.lileks.com/institute/interiors/index.html

I stumbled over this site quite by accident, and then spent considerable time there (crying with laughter, mostly). It is a compendium of 70s taste and style, and would be very useful for people who are thinking of decorating their dollhouse in 70s fashion. Or maybe putting them off the whole idea, I am not sure. I am not even sure some of the decorating effects could be replicated in mini.

Fran in Melbourne

Regency Period: OK, I don't remember all the details, as I'm not much of an English history buff, but as far as I know, the Regency period was during the later years of the reign of King George III. The king, who lost the American colonies, had gone mad, and was not fit to rule the kingdom. His son was not old enough to take over, and since George III was still alive, couldn't have become king anyway. So, a "regent" was appointed to act as ruler, until George passed away. Hence the Regency period. However, the Regency period was in the early 1800s, not 1880-1890 as suggested above. I believe that the Regency style goes hand-in-hand with the Neo-classical style, which was popular in France at about the same time, during the Napoleon era.

Jonathan in Israel

Regency Period: The term "Regency" refers to the period of British history (1811 to 1820) when George, Prince of Wales, later known as George IV, was regent.

Judy in Missouri

Regency Period: the Regency Period in Britain was so called because, as Jonathan described, King George III became ill (it has been revealed by modern medicine that he suffered from an unusual illness that made it appear that he was off his rocker but I forget the name of it) and could not keep up his duties as King so a Regent was appointed to act for him. Where Jonathan's explanation went off track is in saying his son was too young. Some of his sons may have been (there were many of them) but the eldest became the Prince Regent and when his father died he became King George IV. During the time of his Regency in the early 19th century a distinctive style in design evolved and so it was dubbed The Regency Style. A similar style in France was called Directoire and in the US it was the Federal. The Prince Regent's only child was Princess Charlotte and when she died in childbirth he had no heir so his brother became king as William IV when George IV died. William IV and Queen Adelaide had no children together so when he died he was succeeded by the child of the next youngest son of King George III who became Queen Victoria. That's probably more than anyone wanted to know.

June in London Ontario Canada

Ivy and Moss: I saw the digest that you asked about "finding" ivy or moss for your dh wall. I have been making a lot of quarter round boxes lately with "rock" walls covering both sides and a cascading waterfall down the center. I have used the tips from SS and used water putty for the "rocks" and clear caulking for the falls. Envirotex makes the water in the pool below the falls and Fimo makes the fish and turtles and frogs. I use Fimo, paper, and preserved real plants and flowers for landscaping along with torn pieces of the model train landscaping material called "chunky turf" It comes in several shades of green and I make hedges and bushes andmeandering plants with different colors of it for color interest. My favorite is the one called "burnt grass". It is a grayish yellow green that makes wonderful moss on the walls. After I roll the balls of water putty and glue them to the walls and up the center (for the falls) and make the low wall for the pool across the front, I let it all dry then spray paint it with Flexstone granite (black) paint. At this point the entire inside of the box is solid gray "stone. After adding the falls and pool and plants and flowers and critters, the walls are still stark and bare looking. To break this up, I pinch off tiny pieces of the chunky turf (dyed green foam chunks) and I dip them in thick tacky and place them in long trails along the cracks and chinks of the walls. I add a small fern plant here and there, one scene has stone pockets dripping with Fimo orchids and ferns that were dripping with water (dribble the Envirotex on them just as it thickens). I draped preserved strands of dyed green chenille plant from the top of one box (over the "moss") and added bunches of tiny preserved babies breath flowers. It turned out wonderfully. Everyone that sees the boxes comments on the realistic looking moss. I have had nothing but compliments on it. As for the ivy, if you plan to make a lot of it, maybe you could order the ivy punch from Ruth Hanke at Hanky Panky crafts. I have mine from her, and though it is a bit pricey, it has paid for itself many times over. I have made a lot of ivy for swaps and for friends and for sale and have used it extensively in my room boxes and pool scenes. If you can't afford the punch, Ruth will send you pre-punched ivy leaves in a baggy for a very affordable price. I have dealt with her for a long time and have never been disappointed. She has numerous leaves and flower punches and will accommodate whatever she can for you. To find her, just go to http://HankyPankycrafts.com.If you don't want to make it yourself, feel free to e mail me and maybe we can work something out.

Norieta in Hawaii

Leaves: I have made lots of leaves by painting pieces of tracing paper. (Get the good vellum kind.) I usually use some combination of Sap Green, and then a lighter and a darker green, or greens. The trick to making realistic leaves is to do them in several colors, never just one. Make puddles of paint on, say, a piece of waxed paper, or plastic wrap, or whatever you like to use for a palette. Lay the puddles close together, but not so close that they mix. With a large, flat brush,drag through a color, and paint a swath of green on your paper...(Oh, did I tell you that it really helps to tape the paper down to your table by the corners? No? Well, it does...because when you start painting a whole sheet of paper, that paper wants to curl right up.) Continue painting your paper with the different colors of green, laying the colors side by side...mixing some with the others, leaving some pure...you can also mix with a little yellow...white. You want to have a whole sheet of painted paper that has many colors of green. Let dry, and, then if you want to have shiny leaves, paint a layer of ModPodge Matte on the paper. (Matt sounds like it should BE matte, but it's not...it's somewhat shiny...just enough, I've found, for shiny leaves.) Un-tape your paper, flip it over, tape it down again, and repeat the above steps. Now you will have a whole sheet of various greens to use. You can now cut leaves out with scissors, or use a punch. Voila! And, you will have enough paper to make approximately a million leaves, depending on the size, of course.

Kaye in LA

Round Wiring: I use round wire in construction. I design a wiring diagram for the most efficient and least obvious paths for the wires. I then route grooves in 3/8 inch plywood with a Dremel router before putting the shell together. For example, a small groove in the ceiling close to the back wall is very difficult to see when the room is enclosed with walls, so are grooves in the back edges of side walls (in the corners). At every opportunity, I wire to run where window and door trim will be installed (sometimes routing the trim too). The router grooves often hold more than one wire. I then construct the shell, run my wiring and spackle the grooves over, sand, and finish the walls. Make sure that all the wiring is tested before filling the grooves. For the small "plug in" connectors, I hide in or under furnishings, sometimes building a "step" or "built-in" that hides connections. If you have any other questions let me know.

Sharon Blake, Wasilla, Alaska